Bitcoin Forum

Hi all, I'm new to crypto as recently I have free time on the internet and see an ads about it. Google brings me here, and medium, some crypto websites too. I want to own some coin and try to invest. The only way to buy crypto is credit card. I'm confused that why I must provide my identity, passport number and image of it, and photo of my face. I read and know that crypto is anonymous, why I must kyc to buy coin?

This statement is very far away from being true. You can buy crypto in some of the following ways (just thinking a few, not putting much effort into it):

• Selling other crypto for BTC
• Bitcoin ATMs (cash)
• Buying them from another person (again, cash)
• Wire transfer (exchanges or other person)
• Prepaid cards (similar to gift cards, offered in some supermarkets)
• Sell amazon codes (or any other) codes for crypto
• ....

Alternatively, you can also sell goods and accept BTCBTC payments, offer some kind of service and get paid in BTCBTC, and the list goes on

You only have to verify your identity with some centralized platforms, and some even have a non KYC limits established.

Bitcoin (and most crypto) pseudo-anonimous, all transactions are publicly available in the blockchain, so if you "only" have to know who one particular address belongs to to see most of their movements. Luckily, there are some procedures to prevent this, and getting a more anonimous experience.

First of all be careful to only use reputable sites.

As to why you need to go through KYC - since bitcoin and other cryptos started to attract serious money, they came more to the attention of governments around the world. KYC is partly to protect users and partly to comply with legal safeguards against terrorism and money-laundering. Exchanges and gateways that don't comply with the laws of the country in which they are based are liable to prosecution.

You must also remember that blockchains are transparent. It is only anonymous so long as there is no connection to a fiat gateway.

KYC is an increasingly contentious subject. There is plenty about it online, have a read of this (https://news.bitcoin.com/a-bitcoin-war-is-brewing-over-kyc/) for example.

I assume that you have at least created a bitcoin wallet. If you do, you can try buying bitcoin at https://localbitcoins.com/. This site allows you to find willing seller in your vicinity with varities of payment method such as paypal or meeting up with someone so as to avoid KYC.

https://coinatmradar.com/ if you prefer using btc ATM. ATM allows you to buy bitcoin using fiat while surrendering your btc wallet QR code bitcoin address in its scanner to receive the equivalent amount of bitcoin at the current rate.

KYC is obligatory in LBC, and in-person transactions has been removed (https://news.bitcoin.com/localbitcoins-removes-in-person-cash-trades-forcing-traders-to-look-elsewhere/) sometime ago. I would suggest OP to use LocalCryptos  (https://localcryptos.com/) instead.

Actually Cryptocurrency is very risky because of huge scammers and in crypto buying like Bitcoin you may have issues.Here is a huge risk to lose funds by being trapped from any scammer.Thats why to be safe some platforms must need to verify kyc.And it is increase your crypto transection limits too.

But it's not mandatory in all exchanges and you can easily buy it from your local country exchanges without doing kyc.And many big exchanges have features to buy without taking your personal details through kyc. And you can try Binance Exchange,MXC exchange and many others.

Credit card is not the only way to buy crypto-currency. You can even use this forum to buy bitcoin or other crypto-currency because most trusted users help others to escrow any deals. So, if you find out anyone who is willing to sell bitcoin or any crypto, just do escrow with any escrowers and make the deal without any tensions of scamming. Without escrow don't make any deal in this forum if you don't know him personally. Kyc is only need in the CEX ( centralized exchange ) to buy crypto with credit cards.

Here is the list of escrow services: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2439910.msg24991775#msg24991775

You should have put some factors into consideration before these point you mentioned above. One, whether in OP community Bitcoin ATM exit, or he/she has other altcoin, whether he/ she knows someone that is ready to sell and so on.
I do believe op can find his country men here who have good reputation that he can Bitcoin from in exchange for his local currency if he don't want to subject himself to KYC via crypto currency exchange because even local exchange as recommended by some people above is not free from KYC.

I had indeed considered that, but my objective was to make OP see that there are (many) alternatives to buying Bitcoin without a credit card. I was not evaluating his personal case, but giving some information for OP and anyone that may have the same question in the future and finds this tread.

Now many reputable sites also giving this service to users as they able to buy and sell bitcoins and altcoins for credit card without any hassle and KYC mean Binance and HitBtc both offering this service and CEX is not good and please think before doing any business with this scam exchange.

Welcome to the bitcoin forum, you are in the right place to get knowledge about bitcoin and other cryptocurrency and without reducing my respect for other users, then I will only give a few additional suggestions for you and hopefully there are benefits.

If you live in a country that already has a bitcoin ATM, then you will easily buy it at an ATM using cash, but you will only get bitcoin and not for other cryptocurrencies.

For countries that dont have a bitcoin ATM, I think there are several ways to buy or sell bitcoin, such as:

• Conduct transactions with other users (Use escrow services to increase security)
• Choose an exchange that does not require you to send the KYC form if you object to KYC. But lately KYC is one of the conditions for exchange if they want to continue to operate in countries that apply KYC rules for cryptocurrency users.
• You can buy on an exchange that uses KYC but you must consider that it is a safe exchange.
• The rest, you can also get buying and selling services from trusted users in the forum as done by one of our local users. [ZAKY-CELL] Jual Beli Bitcoin - Voucher Indodax - Official P2P Binance - Escrow (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2403266.0) by AakZaky

Along with LocalCryptos, I'd also recommend HodlHodl.com. Once, user gets pro, Bisq.io is the best for non-KYC purchase of BTC.

Completing KYC at an exchange doesn't reduce your risk of being scammed in any way. In fact, completing KYC puts you at a higher risk of being scammed since you are sending all your personal information to a complete stranger, who can then do whatever they like with it, including commit identity theft, fraud, or sell your details to others. Keeping your personal information, KYC documents, email address, etc., private is a good way to protect yourself from some scams, and taking due care and due diligence will protect you from the others.

As mentioned above, LocalCryptos, Bisq, or Hodl Hodl are the best non-KYC peer-to-peer exchanges at the moment, which allow you trade safely and protect your personal information and privacy.

No, it is not. And you can still get scammed in places requiring KYC

Yes its happen many time here on this forum KYC never give any protection to any one from scam its just formality from few exchanges and sites just because of International laws and judiciary restrictions.

On the contrary, I've encountered some crypto and crypto exchanges that actually do not accept credit cards as a method of payment. But I noticed this only during the ICO of some of the new altcoins that I was somehow interested in participating, when I was still new to crypto.

Thank you for your suggestions friends. I read all. You clarify me many things. I think I will use https://localcryptos.com/  to buy 1eth first. Crypto is a larger world than I thought.
You said about Bitcoin Atm. I didn't know it yet. It sounds interesting. I'm going to explore it now.

Cryptocurrency is really anonymous but the platform that you have didn't follow the purpose of crypto being anonymous. The have their own reasons for that like to prevent money laundering and more that's why they will ask you to complete the KYC on their platform before you can buy some coin. Just make sure you go to ansite that is reputable by doing some research.

I never tried out localcryptos or other platforms to buy crypto off with fiat, but I've used lots of different ATMs. Make sure your closest ATM does not have KYC (or maybe it has a certain limit you can deposit without KYC - check their terms & conditions or call their number to find out) and also make sure it's open now that most businesses are closed.

If you can find one nearby, I suggest you to try it out at least once. Feels much safer imo and you don't have to work with banks to get your cryptos, so as long as there's no KYC.. risks are little. :)

Also, he can try a local crypto exchange that has an office. For example, in my country we have few crypto exchanges that doesn't require a user to do KYC up to a certain amount. And even if I want to invest larger amount, I can buy crypto several days in a row because the limit is set to 24 hour period.

Sorry, But i also don't recommend cex exchange either. In  that reply, i write CEX for Centralized Exchange as well as we use DEX for Decentralized Exchange. That's it. Also in my opinion, HitBtc is a shady one because of their transections problems. So many users already faced it. BTW, it's just my opinion.   ;) ;D

Buying coins with credit card is not the only way, some exchanges or crypto platform accepts direct Fiat deposit e.g binance exchange, KYC shouldn't be an issue if you have a clear mind, it's all for the sake of crypto world, some criminals are embezzling money with coins that's why KYC is important


Make sure you invest in popular coins only, we have too many scam projects in crypto world today, they are jaguars waiting for their preys, the top and best coins are Bitcoin and Ethereum, just do your own research, you can use coinmarketcap.com

If you want to use fiat on Binance via any method, be it credit card, bank transfer, direct deposit, etc., you will need to complete KYC. They might let you deposit first but then lock your account and freeze your money until after you perform KYC though.

Saying KYC isn't an issue if you aren't doing anything wrong is complete nonsense. This is just the "nothing to fear, nothing to hide" argument dressed up in a new skin. I am not doing anything illegal with bitcoin, but that doesn't mean I want a variety of complete strangers the world over being able to stick their noses in to my financial transactions whenever they like. I assume you aren't doing anything illegal online, but you don't share the passwords to your email addresses and social media accounts on here. The principle is exactly the same.

Being a "top coin" on coinmarketcap means nothing as market cap is a meaningless statistic. Several of the top 10 coins are outright scams. You're safer just sticking to bitcoin.

Try to visit https://paxful.com/ they have so much option to choose from and which payment you're most comfortable I guess they have 330 options of payment method. They have bank transfers, western union, alipay, different gift cards and many more. Yes, Crypto is anonymous but some of the platform is doing KYC due to some regulation if they don't comply they will suffer some consequences or penalties. Also, to avoid fraud, only platform is doing those KYC the crypto or blockchain itself is not requiring those KYC and still anonymous. The problem is what if those platforms got hacked? So I respect you for not being comfortable with KYC our data if very important.

It is not necessary to do all of that which is called KYC. It depends on the platfork you have used. Some will ask your personal documents like ID and more to confirm that it is you. Some site implement KYC for some reasons to make people not doing illegal activities like money laundering for example or else they will face some issues, problems or consequences.

You are right that by doing KYC they are doing not take our personal information and drive us illegally for concealment That's why you ought to stand back from buying and selling coins with KYC. These sites are never good. This KYC creates new scams Good and reliable sites never invite KYC. These are often verified by mail So don't invest in these sites and be wary of those platforms.

Almost any centralized platform will ask for KYC. Not to mention they take some fees and sometimes it's more than 1%.

If anyone doesn't want to do it then P2P trading is their option. Trading between trusted users on this forum is a great alternative, not to mention you can ask for KYC if you don't trust them.

This is just one of the options there are many options to buy Crypto where you will still become anonymous, but why not go for what it is intended for like peer to peer if you are going to hodl for a long term, there are people, trusted people whom you can trade in the service section some of them are offering escrow for the safety of both parties.

To sum up the answers, the KYC's idea is simple. It is just to have a valid document that a platform's user is not cheating with their system by having multiple accounts, and also to validate that he is indeed a real person. Some uses kyc to atleast have a legal proof if ever something goes wrong such as a client stole certain coins. For short, it is just an assurance of the reliability of the person, a simple handshake of trust. Yet, one must also be careful on whom and where to give his identity.

It'll happen when someone wants to transfer any large amount of crypto or fiat currency. But there are high rated centralized platform which offer to transfer 1-2 btc daily without any kyc. Also there are so many exchanges/platforms which take a unfair fees. That's really unacceptable.  :(

yeah, there are so many escrow services by the highly reputated forum users. So it won't need to ask for kyc to make a deal with them. But if someone not in the list, than anyone should verify the user's reputation or if the user is trustworthy or not.

KYC is not required when buying and selling crypto coins. There are many ways you can do besides having to do KYC.
Buying and selling altcoin can be done on decentralized Exchange such as Etherdelta, Forkdelta etc.

But when you want more specific and more complete features for trading needs, Binance is an option, but you have to use KYC. I think Binance is safe to do KYC. But it depends on you.

KYC which is prohibited is on the Exchange which does not have credibility and high quality, because it will be very prone to be misused.